Block QuickBooks Desktop 2017 Updates After Sunset (May 2020)

Keep your QuickBooks Desktop 2017 install running exactly as it is. Learn how to disable in-app updates, stop the background updater, and lock down folders

If you are still running QuickBooks Desktop 2017, you are managing a discontinued product. Intuit officially ended services, add-ons, and live support for the 2017 lineup on May 31, 2020. At this stage, applying new updates is rarely helpful and can sometimes disrupt a perfectly stable, offline setup. To keep your working install exactly as it is, you need to permanently block automatic updates.

Here is how to lock down your QuickBooks Desktop 2017 environment.

Disable In-App Automatic Updates

The first step is to tell the QuickBooks application itself to stop fetching and applying patches. This process is identical across most recent QuickBooks Desktop versions:

1. Open QuickBooks 2017 and select Update QuickBooks Desktop from the Help menu.
2. Navigate to the Update Now tab and click Options.
3. Select No for both the "Automatic Update" and "Shared Download" options.
4. Save your changes.

This prevents the software from actively searching for new release patches in the background.

Stop the QuickBooks Update Agent

Even when in-app settings are disabled, QuickBooks sometimes relies on a background process—the QuickBooks Update Agent—to push silent installations. To prevent this service from running:

1. Open the Windows Start menu, type Task Scheduler, and press Enter.
2. Look through the active tasks for any entry named QuickBooks Update Agent or similar Intuit scheduling tasks.
3. Right-click the task and select Disable.

Disabling the task ensures that Windows will no longer allow the updater to launch on its own when you boot your computer.

Lock Down the Update Folders

As a final layer of defense, you can restrict Windows from writing new update files to your hard drive. QuickBooks typically stores downloaded updates in the Intuit folder located in your ProgramData or AppData directories.

You can prevent the system from writing to these folders by adjusting their permissions:

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\ProgramData\Intuit\QuickBooks 2017\Components.
2. Right-click the folder (or the specific QBUpdate subfolder) and select Properties.
3. Under the Security tab, click Edit to change permissions.
4. Select the SYSTEM and Administrators groups, and check the Deny box for Write and Modify permissions.
5. Apply the changes.

By denying write access, you ensure that even if an update command slips through, the installation files cannot be saved to your drive.

Maintaining Your 2017 Install

By freezing your software version, you protect your current workflow from unexpected changes. Because your version relies on local data rather than live Intuit servers, keeping your company file healthy is your primary ongoing task. If you ever encounter performance issues or error messages while opening your data, addressing the company file itself—rather than the application—usually resolves the problem. For severe data corruption or missing lists, our team at quickbooksfilerepair.com can help rebuild the file so you can continue operating on your 2017 software without interruption.